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OUANAMINTHE---Thousands of people from Haiti
or merely of Haitian descent aren t waiting to see if
they ll be forcibly removed from the Dominican Repub-
lic now that the deadline has passed to apply for legal
residency.
The end of a yearlong application period has sparked
an exodus to Haiti of people who failed to qualify. Some
plan to wait out what they fear could be a wave of mass
deportations, while others will start uncertain new lives
on the poorer side of Hispaniola.
The two countries that share the Caribbean island
have a fraught history, with generations of Haitians
crossing into the Dominican Republic to take low-wage
jobs in fields like agriculture and construction. They ve
also encountered discrimination and periodic crack-
downs.
Among those who have left recently are Haitian
farmworker Eragene Moncher, despite the fact he actually
qualified for the "regularisation" programme for for-
eign-born people.
He returned to the homeland he left more than 20
years ago after failing to get the documents necessary
for five of his six children to establish Dominican res-
idency, all of whom were born there.
"We re arriving with nothing," he said while boarding
a truck in the border town of Ouanaminthe with two
of his children and headed toward the capital of Port-
au-Prince.
"I m trying to figure out how we re going to make
a living."
Dominican officials say migrants in the country could
stay if they prove they arrived before October 2011 and
have taken steps to establish themselves by getting a
job or going to school. Nearly 290,000 of the estimated
524,000 migrants in the country---the majority of them
Haitians---applied by the June 17 deadline. The gov-
ernment says those who didn t apply or who didn t get
legal permission to stay should leave or risk deporta-
tion.
The Dominican government says nearly 40,000
people had left as of July 6.
Many people going to Haiti say they fear the violent,
often traumatic expulsions that have occurred periodically
in the past, and are frustrated with requirements for
documents many cannot obtain.
The Dominican Republic has been under international
scrutiny in recent years for immigration policies that
tend to affect mostly Haitians and people of Haitian
descent, who tend to be darker skinned than most
Dominicans and often find themselves victims of racial
discrimination.
In September 2013, the Dominican Republic s Con-
stitutional Court ruled that children born in the country
to non-citizens did not qualify for automatic citizenship
because their migrant parents---most of whom were
Haitians---were "in transit."
Amid an international outcry, President Danilo Med-
ina s administration announced it would grant citizenship
to the estimated 55,000 people it said were born in the
Dominican Republic to at least one parent who was a
citizen or legal resident.
It also created a programme for people who were
born in the country but never obtained a birth certificate
or other identification. Before it closed in February, only
about 9,000 people applied for the programme that
let them register as foreigners and become naturalised
citizens. Rights activists fear that Dominican-born
people without proper documentation are as vulnerable
to deportation as foreigners.
"They re saying there are going to be deportations,"
construction worker Wasley Abraham said as he, his
wife and daughter prepared to cross the Dominican
border into his native Haiti. A pink bike with training
wheels peeked out among belongings loaded on a truck.
"It s best to move now."
Pedro Cano, co-ordinator of the Jesuit Migrant Service
in the Dominican border town of Jimani, said abrupt
deportation can be devastating for people who have
spent years, sometimes their entire lives, in the Domini-
can Republic. (AP)
A43
world
Thursday, July 16, 2015 www.guardian.co.tt Guardian
A moving truck loaded with furniture approaches the border with Haiti in
Dajabon, Dominican Republic, last week. Thousands of people from Haiti or
merely of Haitian descent aren't waiting to find out if they will be forcibly
removed from the Dominican Republic now that the deadline has passed to apply
for legal residency. AP PHOTO
Haitians leave Dominican Republic to avoid deportation
Future of uncertainty
A girl born in the Dominican Republic to Haitian
parents peers through the window of a government
car that transported her and her family to the border
with Haiti, in Santo Domingo last month, after her
family returned voluntarily to their native Haiti after
living in the DR for several years. AP PHOTO